[jimglass]

I have heard nothing but good thinks about Tormach.

I have seen them running at the CNC Workshop. They had a Tormach with a
toolchager. There was a medium sized bed mill at the CNC workshop that looked like a great machine for the home machinist. It was made in China and I do not recall the name.

Tormach is comming out with a lathe.

Myself, I build my own CNC machines or retrofit existing CNC machines and run them in my shop.

Hopefully I'll be at the CNC Workshop again in a couple of weeks in Ann Arbor
Michigan.
Jim

[wizard]

Here I'm talking physical size and how you would fit them in a mill. Get an idea of the working envelope required and go from there.

The Taig is a very good light mill thus the comments you often see about the machine. It is notable that Taig hardware shows up all over the place even if their name isn't glued to the front. Howevever all machines have their limits and I have to wonder if the Taig might be a bit small for your needs.

You should also consider looking at the Little Machine Shop and the mills they carry. I've seen them running at Cabin fever and was impressed with the value considering the price. These are smaller than the Tormach and do have a smaller working envelope than might be needed in your case.

If you intend to look at the Tormach you might as well consider CNC conversions of a Bridgeport clone and used CNC bed mills. The Chinese import bed mills are also worth a look for CnC conversion.

As others have pointed out you may (will) also need a lathe to attack some of those projects. It doesn't stop there either, plan on a bench grinder, belt sander and maybe even a band saw or two. Plus an endless number of hand tools and instruments.